Get Your Rants

Followers

Friday, January 24, 2014

Pettine leftovers

Mike Pettine has been credited with transforming the Buffalo
Bills’ defense in just one season. Into what is not clear. So let’s take a
closer look at that transformation.

The new Browns coach took over a defense in Buffalo last
season that was similar in many ways to the Browns’. Like Ray Horton’s scheme,
it was a 3-4 hybrid with multiple fronts. It was an attacking defense, designed
to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks from all points on the field.

With Pettine's arrival, the Buffalo defense improved from 22nd overall in 2012 to 10th (fourth vs. the pass, 28th against the run) last season. The Browns under Horton rose from 23rd overall in 2012 to ninth in 2013. A parallel journey for both clubs.

The Bills’ defense, like the Browns’, really didn’t shut
anyone down last season. Every team on the schedule scored at least 20 points
on that defense, which permitted 24.2 points a game (22.5 net when factoring in
opposition touchdowns on defense and special teams). The Browns were at 25.4 (23.6
net).

The Buffalo defense stood out in three areas, all related to
the pass. The Bills ranked second in the National Football League in sacks with
57 and interceptions with 23 and allowed just 5.9 yards per completion, best in
the league. A statistical oddity: the fourth-ranked pass defense allowed 28
touchdowns.

As well as the Bills played the pass, they faltered against
the run, permitting 129 yards a game. Sounds like the Cleveland run defense
before Horton arrived. Pettine’s desire to put the quarterback on his back had
a deleterious effect against the run.

Sort of falls in line with the tough and aggressive approach
he plans on bringing the Cleveland defense, which is trying to shed its label
of being considered somewhat soft. The Browns dramatically improved their run
defense last season, but fell far short against the pass.

Other notable Pettine stats with Buffalo include a
respectable 37.1% conversion rate on third downs. The Browns permitted opposing
teams to convert 44,7% of the time on that critical down. Getting off the field
proved extremely difficult last season.

The best you can say about the results in Buffalo (and Cleveland) was it was mediocre. Nothing embarrassing, but nothing great.

So how does all that impact Pettine’s new job? It doesn’t.
He is now the head coach and that’s a brand new ballgame, something he’ll
discover once they play games. Being the head coach is a whole different animal
than being a coordinator.

A coordinator concentrates on a singular aspect of the game.
That’s his job, his main responsibility.A head coach oversees the entire program. From time management to
thinking at least three or four plays ahead of what’s actually going on to
making the tough decisions in crunch time, he’s the supreme boss.

A head coach determines the philosophy of and sets the
culture for the team in every aspect of the game. He sets the tone. Pettine
will find out just how difficult it is to juggle calling defenses, which he
said he would do next season, with running the entire team. Very few coaches
have been able to do that successfully. Many more have failed.

***

There was a recurring theme throughout Pettine’s first
dalliance with the Cleveland media. Tough was the main theme.

“This team is going to be built on toughness,” he said, then
spoke about teams that talk themselves into losing. “That, to me, is the
culture that needs to be changed here. We’re going to build a team not just
physically tough, but also mentally.”

And the best quote of the news conference by Pettine: “To
compete in the AFC North, you have to be willing to bloody your nose a little
bit. That’s the mentality we’re going to take here. This team is going to be
built on toughness.”

He talks tough. Let’s see if it transitions to the field. On
the surface, though, it looks as though big boy football is returning to
Cleveland.

***

First impression of Pettine: He’s a no-nonsense guy who will
inject a strict discipline into the Browns. How intractable he is, however, can
be a mitigating factor with the players. Watching Greg Schiano self-destruct in
Tampa Bay the last two seasons should be a valuable lesson.

The way he talks, Pettine appears to be that type of coach.
Schiano lost his job because he attempted to run a tight ship following the
loose regime of his predecessor, Raheem Morris. It was too tight and backfired.

“The atmosphere . . . was real tense,” Buccaneers cornerback
Darelle Revis told the Tampa Bay Times recently at the Pro Bowl in Honolulu.
“Guys didn’t like coming to work. That’s one of the things you have to have, a
stress-free atmosphere and environment.

“You’re going to get everything out of everybody if it’s
stress free and let people be who they are. I wish he would have listened to some
of the players a little bit more, especially the veterans and some of the older
guys.”

If Pettine wants toughness from his team and keep the lines
of communication open, he has to walk a fine line between soliciting that
toughness and being flexible. He has to make coming to work, as Revis said, an
enjoyable experience.

***

Brian Billick, the former Ravens coach who brought Pettine
into the NFL as a video assistant in 2002, wondered what took the Browns so
long to hire him.

“The thing you wonder about,” he said, “I understand you
have to go through a process, but you could have hired Mike on Jan. 3 (five
days after the Rob Chudzinski firing) and had a leg up on putting together a
staff.”

Tell that to Haslam and Joe Banner.

***

Speaking of Haslam, the Cleveland owner fell back on an old
reliable when discussing the national perception of the 25-day struggle to find
Chudzinski’s successor. Rather than turning the blame inward, he blamed, ta da,
the media. Yep, it’s the media’s fault he and Banner took nearly a month to
name a new coach.

“I think that’s the perception you all have generated,”
Haslam said. “That’s not the perception among the (coaching) candidates, that’s
not the perception among football people I talk to around the country. This
perception that’s been created out there is not reality.”

If that wasn’t the perception, why then did it take so long
to find the new coach? In this case, despite Haslam’s protestations, perception
indeed was reality.

(The preceding note was originally written about Banner and has been changed to reflect the views of Haslam, not the club's CEO. Apologies to Banner for incorrectly linking his name to those quotes.)
***

Pettine said he was impressed by “a leadership group
committed to winning, a young roster, plenty of cap space, a deep draft, plenty
of picks.

But why not wait until next year when more opportunities
will arise? “I don’t know if I believe in that,” he said. “I look at this
situation, when you put all the factors together, this franchise is in
position, given the right leadership, to win.” He's saying all the right things.

***

There will always be a lingering impression that good timing
is what landed Pettine the Cleveland job. Good timing for Pettine and bad
timing for Seattle’s Dan Quinn.

Because the Seahawks defensive coordinator was tied up with
the Super Bowl and couldn’t be signed until after the big event, and the Browns
were in a hurry to get a new coach, Quinn will have to wait until next year to
become a head coach.

We’ll never know for certain, but Quinn just might have been
favored over Pettine by the Cleveland front office and the need to form a
coaching staff now took precedence. The longer the Browns waited to name their
new coach, the more difficult it would have been to assemble a staff.

***

Hopefully, Pettine lasts more than one season. And
hopefully, the Browns never again conduct a coaching search like this. Its
interminable length only added to the embarrassment that seeps out of Berea on
a daily basis.

Next time, at least have a plan in place if you’re going to
fire a coach. If the Browns had known it would have been this difficult to get
a new head coach, they might have thought twice about firing Chudzinski.

***

So did the Browns improve themselves with this hire? The optimist says what have they got to lose. The pessimist says wait and see. I belong to the latter group. Shocking, I know. We've seen too many failures for the last 15 seasons. I need solid proof.

We do know they hired a man whose defensive philosophy is a
mirror image of the former defensive coordinator. And they are wandering
aimlessly on offense because the new guy has never in is career had anything to
do with that side of the ball.

But if Pettine wins at least six games in the upcoming season, that
will be considered progress considering the Browns haven’t won that many games in
a season since 2007, when they shocked the NFL and won 10. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Worth the wait?

Well, it’s about damn time.

Mike Pettine Jr. officially became the Browns’ seventh full-time
head coach since 1999 with his anointment, er, appointment Thursday.

It wasn’t so much that Pettine beat out a large field of
candidates. In reality, the Browns settled on the 47-year-old former Buffalo
Bills defensive coordinator, a relatively late entrant into the Cleveland coaching
derby.

Until recently, the new coach was Mike Who? When
his name suddenly became associated with the Cleveland coaching vacancy, practically no
one knew who he was. Only the most sophisticated professional football fan could tell you about him.

Pettine clearly is the not the club’s first choice and maybe
not even their second or third choice. He didn’t pop onto their radar until
about two weeks into the process. But you can bet Jimmy Haslam III and Joe
Banner will deny it, claiming it was a “purposefully methodical” approach that
helped land him.

The fact no other team chose to interview Pettine might very well be an accurate reflection on what other teams seeking a new head coach throughout the
National Football League thought of his coaching prowess. Only the Browns
hopped on that bandwagon.

Hopefully, they won’t get too dizzy spinning the situation
to make it look as though he was their top choice from the beginning. Not when
the likes of Josh McDaniels, Adam Gase and a few other veteran coaches were
available.

It turned out to be a war of attrition for the Browns as the
days and weeks tumbled by without a new coach. Nearly a dozen names popped into
and out of the picture as the search dragged on for what seemed like forever. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but when the other six teams
with coaching vacancies made relatively quick decisions, it made the Browns look
like the model of indecision.

It actually took the team 18 days after the firing of Rob
Chudzinski on Dec. 29 to even consider Pettine for the job. And it required three
interviews – Jan. 16, this past Tuesday and again Thursday – before determining
that, yes, he was their man.

Normally, it takes no more than two interviews to lock down
a job as a head coach in the NFL. Pettine was put through three exhaustive
sit-downs. Hard to know exactly what else could be gleaned from a third
interview.

It has been reported that Pettine wanted this job badly. Good
for him. That, of course, will sit well with some of the fan base. After all,
opportunities like this don’t come along often. But after what happened to
Chudzinski, he definitely must realize he is now working for the most mercurial
front office in the league.

No doubt he honestly believes he can come to Cleveland and
turn around the fortunes of this moribund and dysfunctional franchise. You
don’t begin a new job with negative thoughts swimming in your head.

If nothing else, at least based on his reputation, Pettine
will bring a hard-nosed, no-nonsense approach to a team that badly needs
discipline, which was lacking with the last two coaches.

So why did no other NFL team so much as ask the Bills’
permission to interview Pettine? If he is so well respected and thought of
throughout the league, why wasn’t he at least considered for a head-coaching job?

What did Haslam and Banner see in him that led them to
believe that he was, indeed, the guy they were looking for? Or were they just
throwing darts at a board and more landed on Pettine’s name than any other?

The answer might be contained in the Browns’ news release.
“Mike is the epitome of what we want the Cleveland Browns to be – tough,
aggressive and innovative – with a blue-collar, team-first mentality,” said
Haslam.

“He knows what’s necessary to beat teams in the AFC North (having worked several years in Baltimore).
Most importantly, Mike has repeatedly shown the ability to lead his players to
consistent improvement and success, clearly what we are striving for . . .“

The most praise than can be heaped on the new Cleveland
coach is he was the first coach Rex Ryan hired when he took over the New York
Jets several years ago. He was the Jets’ defensive coordinator for four seasons
when the club racked up some impressive numbers.

If he was so good, then why did Ryan allow him to leave for
the Buffalo job following the 2012 season? It was a sideways move. Could it be
that perhaps he was not really the defensive boss with the Jets, but the DC in
name only? With a strong personality like the defensive-minded Ryan, one has to
wonder who actually ran that defense.

That’s the same question asked by Browns fans when Romeo
Crennel left the New England Patriots in 2005 to become the head man in
Cleveland. Did Crennel really run the great Patriots defense or was it Bill
Belichick? And we all know how that ended.

Another big question that needs to be answered is how much
power the Browns will give their new coach. Chudzinski coached with one hand
tied behind his back as Banner and Mike (The Ghost) Lombardi dictated the shape
of the player roster.

If Haslam allows Banner and The Ghost the same latitude with
regard to the roster and tells Pettine to stick to coaching, then it very well
turn out to be the same old, same old. Again. The only thing that will change
is who occupies the office of head coach.

The best attribute Pettine has going for him is his legacy.
He is the son of a coach. Not just any coach, but a legendary coach in eastern
Pennsylvania. His father, Mike, led Central Bucks West High School in
Doylestown to a 326-42-4 record, winning four state Class AAAA state
championships.

The new Cleveland coach, who bears a strong physical resemblance to Rick Harrison of the
TV reality show Pawn Stars, also coached
high school ball in that region for seven seasons before joining the NFL as a
coaching assistant with Baltimore in 2002.

It also will be interesting to see whom Pettine hires as his
coordinators, especially on defense. He ran a hybrid scheme that leaned more
4-3 than 3-4 in Buffalo, somewhat similar to what Ray Horton ran for the Browns
last season.

In Buffalo, though, Pettine worked with much more talent
than he inherits with the Browns. He coached the likes of defensive linemen
Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Jerry Hughes and Marcell Dareus and terrific rookie linebacker Kiko Alonso. He does not have that kind of talent luxury with the
Browns.

That Bills’ defensive line quartet produced 41 of the club’s 57
sacks (the Browns had 40 overall) with Mario Williams leading the way with 13.
The extremely talented Alonso burst into the NFL landscape with 159 tackles
this past season, third most in the NFL. The Browns’ D’Qwell Jackson was
seventh with 141.

Pettine’s passion for the Cleveland job obviously stemmed
from Haslam’s commitment to winning. He noting how upbeat, energetic and
passionate the owner was during
their interviews. All well and good. Right now, those are only words. The right
words for sure, but words nonetheless.

All he has to do now is take those words and somehow
translate them into Haslam’s goal of winning football. If he can do that, then
Mike Who will become a somebody quickly and justify his selection.

But for skeptics such as yours truly, this looks like the
same move Browns fans have been subjected to for the last 15 years. Until a coach
comes into Cleveland and successfully turns this franchise 180 degrees, that unfortunately
will always be the case.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

And the search goes on and on and on and . . .

Now that Adam Gase has reportedly told the Browns to remove
his name from their list of candidates to replace Rob Chudzinski, there is no
way the club can introduce its new head coach and say he was the first choice.
Or even second choice.

That’s how bad it has become for this franchise.

When assistant coaches tell the Browns they are not
interested in moving up in the coaching ranks to become the head man, you know
they have reached the nadir. That has happened at least twice now with Gase and
Josh McDaniels.

There are only 32 of these jobs available on the planet and
the notion the Cleveland job is a sort of football coaching graveyard does not
nothing but pile on the embarrassment. The aftermath of the Chudzinski firing
appears to be reaching epidemic proportions.

Doesn’t anyone want to coach this team?

The answer obviously is yes, but it looks as if Jimmy Haslam
III and his minions will have to settle for whoever says yes first. So much for
careful consideration as to who succeeds Chudzinski.

Who knows? Maybe the Browns will get lucky and wind up with someone
who actually becomes successful to the point where the team rises to the level
of mediocrity. After what fans have been subjected to the last 15 seasons,
mediocrity is a step in the right direction.

Whether it’s Dan Quinn or Mike Pettine or whomever, it’s
time to get off the pot, stop being “purposefully methodical” and wrap this
thing up. Find out who really wants to come to Cleveland and sign him before he
changes his mind.

This coaching circus needs to stop. It’s bad enough the team
embarrasses the city and its fans. Watching the front office botch this
coaching search only adds to that embarrassment. And the longer it goes, the worse
it gets.

This is not rocket science. Joe Banner’s quest to find the
next unknown superstar and anoint him has already produced one failure. Maybe
that’s why he is treading cautiously now.

It’s one thing to become careful with the selection. It’s
quite another to do so when the field continues to be whittled to a precious
few. This obviously has not gone as the CEO had anticipated.

The longer Banner waits, the more difficult it will be
for the new coach to put together a staff. The new coaches of the six teams
that fired their old coaches have snapped up most of the available
coordinators.

With the new coach, the team gets a new philosophy on both
sides of the ball. That’ll be three changes of coaching philosophy in the last three
seasons. No wonder this team can’t win. With the Browns, continuity is a dirty
word.

One of these years, someone is going to come along with a
plan that will actually flip this franchise 180 degrees and he will be hailed as a
savior. There is always hope.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Browns overcome by inertia

Take a few days off to tend to some personal business and
what do the Browns do?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing except maybe twiddle thumbs between
throwing other names out there as coaching possibilities.

Only the Browns can be the first team to fire a head coach
and the last team to hire his successor. It just adds to the embarrassment of
being arguably the most dysfunctional team in the National Football League. It's an argument fighting a losing battle.

The foot dragging of the somewhat bewildered front office no
doubt caused the club’s public relations arm to swing into action. How else can
owner Jimmy Haslam III’s recent letter to season ticketholders be explained?

“We have purposefully been very methodical in our approach,”
Haslam wrote in small part trying to calm anxious fans and explain that foot
dragging. In other words, we can't make up our minds.

The Browns sure weren’t “purposefully very methodical” when
it came to pulling the plug on Rob Chudzinski after just one season. Purposefully
knee jerk is more like it.

As it stands right now, the Browns once again will wind up with sloppy seconds or even thirds for their next coach. For whatever
reason, this franchise gets in its own way with something as simple as
choosing a new head coach.

It seems as though every move the Browns make in that regard is
the wrong move. All you have to do is look at their 15-year record since the
resurrection to substantiate that claim. Again, Murphy’s Law seems to have
taken up permanent residence in Berea.

What has gone on since Chudzinski was told his services were
no longer needed resembles a merry-go-round of coaching names. (Cue the circus
music.) From Josh McDaniels and Adam Gase – both of whom reportedly do not want
the job – to Mike Pettine, Dan Quinn and Rich Bisaccia, the current names du
jour, the joke continues.

Do not pay attention to the second interviews Pettine and
Quinn are likely to get as this whole fiasco drags out until next month. Both
men are defensive coaches and the Browns seek someone whose priorities lie on
the other side of the football.

Unless Haslam and Joe Banner slam the brakes on that philosophical
approach, interviewing Pettine and Quinn will be nothing more than a charade as we await something more dramatic involving an offensive coach.

Bisaccia, on the other hand, is a special teams coach with
Dallas. Unless Haslam hopes to hit head-coaching gold as Baltimore did with
former special teams coach John Harbaugh, forget Bisaccia.

And unless he changes his mind, Gase will not interview
until the Super Bowl is concluded. His agent reportedly is advising the young
Denver offensive coordinator to wait another year before entering the head
coaching ranks.

Next season, the coaches of six NFL teams – the two New York
teams, Dallas, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Oakland – could be coaching for their
jobs. And all but one of those franchises are more attractive than Cleveland. Only the Jacksonville job
could be considered worse.

Thus it wouldn’t be surprising to see Gase wait patiently
and take over a team with much more potential and a whole lot less dysfunction
than exists with the Browns.

But if Haslam wants Gase badly enough, he just might make it
much more worthwhile to cast his lot with the Browns. In other words, make him
an insane monetary offer he’d be crazy to turn down.

And if that doesn’t work, give him what the club wouldn’t
give Chudzinski: total control of the roster. Disarm Banner and Mike Lombardi. Based
on what he has accomplished in his brief time with the Browns, the reputation Banner
built all those years in Philadelphia has been shot.

If Haslam is determined to be more hands-on because of what
happened this past season, he might as well make bold moves. He’s got nothing
to lose. If Gase is his man and he refuses to take no for an answer, then the
owner has to overpay for a coach with only one season’s experience as a
coordinator.

But if Gase listens to his agent and remains steadfast in
his refusal to become a head-coaching candidate until the 2015 season, Haslam
has to face a harsh reality. He spent a billion dollars to purchase a franchise
that is nothing but trouble; a franchise whose unattractiveness scares off
legitimate coaching candidates.

McDaniels, with his strong northeast Ohio connections, would
have been a natural fit. Only he didn’t want to come back home, not with the
current front office running the show. So he pulled his name from consideration
even before a job was offered.

And now we are reduced to Gase and all the other guys. The
Browns just might have to settle again for the first person who says yes.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Hello Whiz; goodbye Whiz?

Scratch James Franklin from the list of candidates seeking
to become the next head coach of the Browns and add Ken Whisenhunt.

Franklin is taking his coaching talents to Penn State University,
where he will match wits with the likes of Urban Meyer. Now we’ll see how good
he really is.

Whisenhunt is a surprise added starter to the Browns’ search
only because CEO Joe Banner said last week that no one interviewed last year
when the job was open would be interviewed again this year. Whisenhunt will be, according to reports.

Someone, not Banner, seems to have steered owner Jimmy
Haslam III in Whisenhunt’s direction. Not certain what else the former Arizona
Cardinals coach can bring to the table that he didn’t last year.

Perhaps it’s because he was coming off his firing by the
Cardinals last year and this year, he arrives as the offensive coordinator of
the surprising San Diego Chargers, who upset Cincinnati last weekend in the
playoffs.

The big question is whether Whisenhunt will make it to the
interview at all with the Browns. The Detroit Lions and Tennessee Titans are
believed heavily interested in acquiring his talents.

One look at the Detroit roster tells you why Whisenhunt would be a fool to turn down an offer from the Lions should one be
forthcoming. And the Lions would be just as foolish to let him interview with other
teams.

Whisenhunt’s success and subsequent failure with the
Cardinals is directly tied to whoever quarterbacked the team. When Kurt Warner
was his quarterback, the Cards got to a Super Bowl and were annual challengers
for the NFC West title. When Warner retired, the Cards’ fortunes plunged.

Now take a look at the quarterbacks for the Lions and
Browns. The Lions have Matthew Stafford. The Browns have, uh, well, uh, Brian
Hoyer. And, uh, Jason Campbell. And, uh, well OK. Advantage Detroit.

The Lions terribly underachieved under Jim Schwartz this
past season. That’s why he’s looking for another job. Whisenhunt would be a
perfect fit for an offense that features Stafford and Calvin Johnson and a
defense that has arguably one of the best defensive lines in the National
Football League.

So unless the Lions and/or Titans drag their feet with
Whisenhunt, it looks as though his name will drop off the Cleveland radar almost
as quickly as it reappeared.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Nyet, says McDaniels

So Josh McDaniels is no longer a candidate to replace Rob
Chudzinski as coach of the Browns.

According to reports, Bill Belichick’s top assistant with
the New England Patriots has removed his name from any consideration.

Smart man? Or one who believes his next job should be with
an organization that has generous amounts of stability. An organization that is
not dysfunctional. An organization headed in the right direction.

By snubbing his nose at the Browns, McDaniels basically has
indicated he is willing to bide his time and wait until the right organization
comes along so he can redeem himself from his Denver disaster. Smart man.

The Canton native obviously looked at the Cleveland roster.
Then looked at the front-office structure. And then determined this wasn’t going
to work.

Maybe, as some seem to be suggesting, Belichick talked McDaniels
out of any notion to move back to northeast Ohio. Then again, maybe he didn’t
have to. One interview told McDaniels all he needed to know about the Browns.

When coaches are interviewed for jobs, the smart ones
conduct their own interview at the same time. If you’re going to commit
yourself to a new employer, you might as well find out as much as you can about
him.

In his first head-coaching stint in Denver, McDaniels ran the whole football operation. With the Browns, that was never going to happen as long as Joe Banner and Mike
(The Ghost ) Lombardi drew paychecks.

Whoever gets the Cleveland job will never have anything
resembling autonomy. McDaniels obviously saw that. The only puzzler is why it took him so long to realize
that and withdraw his name from consideration.

Would he have been a good fit with the Browns? That’s a moot
point now. The only thing we know for certain is his snub has sent a signal
around the football world to beware of what you’re being sold in Cleveland.

When all the dust clears from the search and the new coach
is introduced, we will be told McDaniels wasn’t their first choice when it
certainly appears as though he was. That’s called damage control.

The Ghost, in particular, would love to have latched on to a
Belichick protégé, especially one so young and dynamic. He must be terribly
disappointed McDaniels opted not to fulfill his so-called boyhood dream of coaching
the Browns.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

And the beat goes on

Or is he just another name thrown against the proverbial
wall in hopes it will stick?

In their slow-moving search for a new head coach, the Browns,
who have had six head coaches in 15 seasons, are venturing further and further into unknown
territory.

McAdoo, for the unwashed, has been the quarterbacks coach
for the Green Bay Packers the past two seasons. Before that, he was the tight
ends coach.

OK, time to fess up. Anyone ever hear about McAdoo before
his name was leaked to the media with regard to his coaching future? Anyone?

Of course not. He was just another assistant coach laboring
in relative anonymity before being thrust into the spotlight by the Browns’
eagerness to interview him.

And now, he officially becomes the eighth potential candidate
competing for the privilege of replacing Rob Chudzinski as Cleveland’s seventh head
coach. Lucky No. 7?

In front of him, and in no particular order, are Josh
McDaniels, Bob Stoops, James Franklin, Gus Malzahn, Dan Quinn, Adam Gase and
Todd Bowles. McDaniels, Quinn and Bowles have been interviewed.

Heading into foreign territory is nothing new for Cleveland
CEO Joe Banner. That’s how he landed Andy Reid in Philadelphia. Lightning
obviously did not strike twice with the Chudzinski appointment a year ago.

But that certainly won’t stop him from searching every
conceivable corner of the football universe in an effort to redeem himself to
owner Jimmy Haslam III. Pulling a John Harbaugh or Mike Tomlin out of a hat
doesn’t happen in Cleveland. He wants to change that.

Banner was embarrassed by the Chudzinski fiasco. He also is
well aware of Cleveland’s reputation as a coaching graveyard. How can anyone
come to any other conclusion after what has transpired the last 15 seasons.

No doubt he will work exhaustively to eliminate that reputation,
hope his No. 1 choice wants to take the job if offered and then cross his
fingers that he made a wise decision.

The last time the club nailed its top choice to be the head
coach was back in 2009 when Eric Mangini arrived. Randy Lerner was the owner at
the time and all but demanded Mangini be hired. History proved that move
supremely unwise.

Banner has Haslam looking over his shoulder on this one.
Hopefully, the owner will show restraint and allow his CEO to conduct the search with no
interference.

We are now at nine days and counting with no apparent end in
sight. ‘Tis better, though, to go slowly and get it right than rush for the
wrong reasons and screw it up.

That’s why candidates like McAdoo pop up on the radar. Don’t
be surprised if there are a few others like him before the final decision is made.

Monday, January 6, 2014

So who gets the job?

He began his coaching career modestly as a graduate
assistant at his alma mater at the age of 23.

He later went on to become an assistant coach at four
different schools before getting his first head coaching gig at the age of 36.

He took a storied college football program that hadn’t won a
conference title in 11 seasons and restored it to greatness within two seasons.
His teams have won eight conference championships in 15 seasons.

For years, his name has been linked at various times with
the opportunity to take his coaching talents to the National Football League.

And for years, even though he chose to remain in the
collegiate ranks, the linking of his name with the NFL grows exponentially.

He is clearly the most interesting man in the Browns’ search
for their next head coach.

He is Robert Anthony Stoops, the most successful member of
the famous football family of Youngstown, Ohio. And, according to reports, is
on the Browns’ radar.

Stoops, whose college coaching record at Oklahoma University
is 160-39 after his Sooners upset Alabama in the Sugar Bowl recently, would be
a natural fit for the Browns. He has never in his 15 seasons at Oklahoma not
gone to a bowl game.

He would be a terrific public relations coup should he
decide to finally make that final coaching leap. The freshness of the local kid
returning to his roots (geographic latitude in effect here) would have a
lingering effect.

He would be a highly popular hire. He’d become the face of
the team. Anyone who dared criticize such a move would be ostracized.

Stoops has two negatives. He has never before coached in the
NFL. More coaches wind up failing than succeeding while trying to make the leap
from college to the NFL. And he is a virtual unknown from a coaching standpoint
to Joe Banner and Mike (The Ghost) Lombardi.

Both men are strictly NFL guys. Their roots are sunk deep
into the league. And while Stoops might be given some consideration should be
finally acquiesce and explore the possibility of turning pro, the fact he is
college might be a deterrent.

Lombardi might be a figurehead, but his input in matters
such as these are not ignored. Banner and owner Jimmy Haslam III will make the
ultimate coaching choice, but not without the thoughts of Lombardi and
assistant GM Ray Farmer.

Stoops is being coy with regard to his immediate future. Responding
to a report out of St. Louis early last week that he had the inside track on
the Cleveland job, he said, innocuously, “You never know.”

Later, he told national talk show host Dan Patrick that “you
never know what will come your way. Right now, I love what I’m doing. Right
now, it’s not something I will pursue.”

He might not pursue, but he might wind up being the pursued.
It’s entirely possible that whoever wants Stoops’ talents might be doing so in
a surreptitious manner through back channels.

Now on to the other candidates.

If Stoops is the most interesting man in the Browns’ search
for a new head coach, James Franklin
certainly has to be the most intriguing.

Who is James Franklin? To the college football junkie who
follows the sport religiously, he’s the young head coach at Vanderbilt
University, a school known much more for education than football. To
the average college football fan, Franklin is “who?”.

All he did when he took over a moribund Vanderbilt program
in 2011 is become the first Commodores coach in 68 years to win his first three
games en route to a 6-6 record and lead his team to a bowl game.

Last season alone, the Commodores knocked off bitter rival
Tennessee at home for the first time in 30 years, won four straight Southeast
Conference games in a row for the first time since 1949, and produced their
first eight-victory season in 30 years and first nine-victory season since
1915. This past season resulted in the school’s first ever back-to-back
nine-victory seasons and a third straight bowl game.

So why is he reportedly on the Browns’ radar? No one knows
for certain. In some circles, he is considered a budding coaching star. Anyone
who can almost magically turn around the Vandy program so quickly and
successfully obviously has the kind of coaching chops that draws the attention
of larger college programs.

It’s very possible the Browns’ interest in at least interviewing
Franklin stems from Haslam’s knowledge of the coach. The owner is a huge supporter
of Tennessee football and the Commodores have defeated his Volunteers the last
two seasons. Maybe he figures if Franklin can do that at Vanderbilt, why not
the Browns?

Two more points: Franklin did serve as wide receivers coach
with Green Bay in 2005. So he does have someNFL experience. And Banner is not averse to tapping an unexpected unknown as
his coach. He’s already done that twice; first with Andy Reid in Philadelphia
and then Rob Chudzinski. He’s batting .500.

Another college coach in the field is Gus Malzahn at Auburn. Considered by many an offensive genius in
the Chip Kelly mold, Malzahn also might be the luckiest coach in college
football this year.

The only reason he’s in the BCS Championship game against
Florida State Monday night is a lucky break on a tipped pass in the late stages
of the Georgia game that turned a loss into a victory, and an iconic 109-yard
return of a missed field goal in the victory over Alabama that propelled the
Tigers to the title game.

Without those two fluke plays, Auburn is just another very
good football team and Malzahn, who has no NFL experience, is just another
coach who came close. And probably removed his face from the Cleveland radar.

Now when it comes to Todd
Bowles, Dan Quinn and Adam Gase,
the talk turns serious because they have NFL pedigree. You can, for all
practical purposes, eliminate Bowles and Quinn from the competition, though. They are
defensive coaches. The Browns are looking for an offensive-minded head coach.

Interviewing Bowles, who one-upped Ray Horton as the Arizona
Cardinals’ defensive coordinator this past season, satisfies the Rooney Rule.
And Quinn is the flavor of the year with his brilliant coordinating of the
Seattle Seahawks’ defense. Neither man is a serious candidate.

Gase is another story. The Denver Broncos’ offensive
coordinator, in his fifth year with the team, is young (he’ll be 36 in March) and
very progressive. Much like Chudzinski was a year ago at this time.

There are those who believe the Broncos’ real offensive
coordinator is Peyton Manning, that Gase is the coordinator in name only.
Manning runs every offense as though it’s his own. He did it in Indianapolis
for all those years and directs it in Denver like he is conducting a symphony.

Then there are those who believe Gase is maximizing
Manning’s fading physical capabilities to the point where he is setting league
records for passing. He and Manning are reputed to be extremely tight.

Only problem is Cleveland does not have a quarterback who is
even in the same universe as Manning. And maybe Gase wouldn’t want to put
himself in such a position for his first head coaching job.

He also has made it known he will not make himself available
for interviews until the Broncos are either eliminated from the playoffs or
after the Super Bowl, whichever comes first. So if the Browns haven’t named a
new coach by that time, you can almost bet Gase is definitely in the mix.

Unless, of course, Banner and Haslam surprise us all and tap someone whose name has not yet surfaced. The way Banner works, that wouldn't at all be surprising.

Don’t think for a minute that the Browns’ brass doesn’t love
all this attention. Think of it. Free publicity almost around the clock in the
wake of the negativity that surrounded the dismissal of Chudzinski a week ago.

Everyone wants to break the news first whether it’s on a
local or national level and they’ll do it anyway they can to do it. To achieve
that goal, the fans and pundits throw as much crap against the wall as they
can, figuring some of it might stick.

The fans, of course, get most of their information from those
much closer to the situation, those so-called insiders who purport to know
what’s being discussed in the boardroom. And then the fans take what they read,
hear and/or see and blow it out of proportion.

It’s a game that’s played every time an important decision
such as this needs to be made. It’s a game to the fans because it somehow makes
them feel closer to the situation than they really are.

All kinds of opinions are put forth and shared, whether on
radio talk shows or the Internet. And until the new Browns coach is named,
those opinions and subsequent disagreements will continue to spew.

Should the Browns take a chance on an untried college coach?
Or should they try again with a National Football League coordinator? Lord
knows the latter route has proved disastrous the last 15 seasons.

Of all the names in the hopper currently, McDaniels is the
closest to being a retread. He’s got failure listed on his resume. Seems he had
a few personnel problems in Denver a few years ago when the owner mistakenly
allowed him to run the football program.

He wasn’t nearly ready.

Some say he’s ready now after heading back to New England,
where Bill Belichick once again took him under his wing and better prepared him
for his next gig. Belichick used his stint as the Browns’ coach a generation
ago as a learning tool to better himself for his eventual comeback as coach of
the Patriots.

Did McDaniels learn his lesson in Denver? Is he ready to
take on a new venture with the Browns if he wows Jimmy Haslam III and Joe Banner
in his interview and is offered the job?

We all know Browns General Manager Mike (The Ghost) Lombardi
wants McDaniels and will lobby hard to bring him to Cleveland. The Ghost’s
strong relationship with Belichick is the driving force behind that.

McDaniels had better make damn certain Cleveland is his best
place to land, though. Fired coaches in the NFL rarely get second chances. If
they fail a second time, they are usually done. Just ask Eric Mangini and Romeo
Crennel. Lose in two cities and you are finished.

So McDaniels better think long and hard and make certain
Cleveland, if he is offered the job, is the place he wants to be, especially
with a front office that seems to have a hair trigger on firing head coaches.

He is young enough and bright enough to wait until the right
opportunity comes along. Maybe he takes a long look at the Cleveland roster and
determines that yes, this is the kind of team I think I can turn around.

Then he has to remember that most of his success has come as
the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for Tom Brady. And if weren’t
for Brady, Belichick might not own three Super Bowl championship rings today
and be a virtual lock for residence in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Thus, we have a chicken and egg situation. Is Brady a future
Hall of Famer because of McDaniels? Or is McDaniels considered the next
Belichick (in some quarters) because of Brady? Considering Brady thrived when
McDaniels bombed in Denver, the latter seems more likely than the former.

Coordinating an offense or defense in football is
substantially different than being a head coach. Success in one does not necessary
beget success in the other. The responsibilities are vastly different. Coordinators
coach players. Head coaches coach coaches.

Once again, is that a lesson McDaniels learned from his Denver
experience? If the Browns seriously want to hire him, that’s a question that
needs to be addressed.